Going Home Again
by Mudblood
Summary: Temporary Hiatus Harry left in the night six years ago, leaving behind everyone he cared about. Now he's back, and has some additions to his life. When he returns, he also finds some interesing surprises awaiting him.
1. Chapter One

A/N: This is my first attempt at a story like this. I'm posting it on a trial basis, just too see how people like it and what kind of response I get. If it seems that nobody is interested I will either take it down or else just refrain from updating. So, PLEASE respond with any comments or criticism you may have, I want honest reviews. Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

"Harry? Harry Potter? Is that you?"

Harry closed his eyes in frustration, mad at himself for being seen. For the past six years he had managed to stay hidden, away from prying eyes. It would figure that the first time he went to Diagon Alley since he left London would also be the same day that one of his former classmates was there. Taking a deep breath, Harry turned around, a huge fake smile plastered across his face.

"Hermione, hello. Fancy seeing you here. How have you been?"

"Don't give me that shit, Harry James Potter. Don't even act like it's just another day! Where have you BEEN? Do you have any idea how WORRIED everyone has been? You disappeared! Just up and left, out of the blue! You didn't tell anyone where you were going, not even Ginny! She cried herself to sleep for a month. A MONTH, Harry! We've spent the past six years looking for you, you disappeared off the face of the earth! And now, out of nowhere, you just show up in Diagon Alley?"

"Hermione, please . . .calm down," Harry begged with her. With each passing sentence, her voice was getting louder and they were beginning to draw attention.

"I will NOT calm down, Harry. We thought you were DEAD! We thought you had been taken. You were just gone from your room, no clue as to where you had gone. How could you DO that to us?"

"Hermione, please . . . ."

"Please what? Please understand? Please listen to you make up some lame excuse? Why should I?"

"Because, you're my friend."

"Right, you're friend," Hermione scoffed as she gave him a poisonous glare. "If I'm such a good _friend_ then why have I not heard from you in six years?"

"I . . .don't know Hermione. I should have contacted at least one of you, let you know that I was okay. I don't know why I didn't. At first it was because I didn't want anybody to come after me. Then . . . I dunno, I guess it was because I was afraid nobody would want to hear from me."

"Harry, of COURSE we wanted to hear from you! No matter HOW mad we were, we always wanted to hear from you, just to know that you were alive. We've never stopped worrying, never stopped hoping that one day you would come back. Why did you ever think we wouldn't want to hear from you? Why didn't you want us to find you?"

"Because," Harry began with a sigh, not knowing where or how to begin. "I knew if you found me, you'd make me come back. I knew you'd find a way to talk me in to it, and I didn't want that."

"Why, Harry? Why didn't you want to come back? Why did you leave in the first place?"

"Because I was scared."

"Scared? Of what?"

"Of life in general. I had just graduated from school, and already my life was being planned for me. Ginny was talking about marriage and family. Mrs. Weasley and you were no better. I hadn't even proposed yet and the three of you were planning a wedding for the next summer, as soon as Ginny was out of Hogwarts. I wasn't ready for that."

"So why didn't you just SAY something then, Harry? You could have talked to Ginny about it."

"I tried," Harry explained in frustration. "I tried talking to everyone. Mrs. Weasley, you, even Ron! But nobody would hear what I was saying! You all had it planned out. Ginny and I were the perfect couple, meant to be together. We would get married straight out of school and start our perfect little family. That wasn't what I wanted, but nobody cared. I wanted to live my life, first. I had spent seven years worrying about my life, and trying to save the whole world. I wanted to have my freedom, I wanted my youth. I wasn't ready to be anybody's husband, I wasn't ready to start a family. First, I wanted to experience the world. But, the more I tried to talk about it, the more I was ignored and pushed to the side. Everyone told me I was just getting myself worked up and I'd feel differently after I was married. It started to scare me and I paniced. I packed up what I could and I just left. I felt so guilty afterward, but I just couldn't come back. For the first time in my life, I was the one controlling my life."

Hermione just looked at him, a semi-sympathetic look on her face, and for once in her life at a loss for words. She had just taken a deep breath and opened her mouth to speak when she was interrupted by a tiny girl, no more than five years old, ran in between Harry and her.

The little girl had long red hair, tied back in a braid, and began talking to Harry in an excited tone, waving a pack of chocolate frogs in his face.

*~"Papa, peut j'avoir un de ces derniers, sil vous plait?"

"Pas en ce moment, amoureux."

"Mais vous AVEZ PROMIS que je pourrais obtenir quelque chose quand nous sommes venus à la ruelle!"

"Je sais que je , mais le papa parle à quelqu'un en ce moment."

"Ainsi ? Sil vous plait, papa. . ..sil vous plait?"

"I dit pas maintenant. À là où est votre soeur?"

"Là-bas, regardant les balais de formation."

"Disparaissent l'attente avec elle jusqu'à ce que je sois parler fait."

"Mais papa. . . "

"Allez ! Si vous êtes bon, alors je vous obtiendrai quelque chose avant que nous partions. Si vous ne vous comportez pas, alors vous n'obtenez rien."~*

"Fin." The child finally gave in and sulked off.

Hermione, who had been watching the exchange with wide eyes, watched the girl walk across the store and begin talking animatedly with a tiny brunette girl. Finally she turned back to Harry, mouth agape. After a minute of staring at him, she regained control of her voice.

"D-did that child just call you PAPA?" She managed to squeak out, voice full of doubt and disbelief.

Harry sighed and turned his gaze to the two little girls, a loving expression in his eyes as he watched them.

"Yes, Hermione, she did. Those two little ones over there . . .are my daughters."

*~ Translation to the French part:

"Daddy, can I have one of these, please?"

"Not right now, sweetheart."

"But you PROMISED I could get something when we came to the Alley!"

"I know I did, but daddy is talking to someone right now."

"So? Please daddy . . . please?"

"I said not now. Where is your sister at?"

"Over there, looking at the training brooms."

"Go wait with her until I'm done talking." 

"But daddy . . ."

"Go! If you're good, then I'll get you something before we leave. If you don't behave, then you're not getting anything."

"Fine."~*


	2. Chapter Two

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Thanks to **Malach** and **LBDOMINGO ** for your reviews! I really appriciate them. 

Also, thank you to **Beeker** for caring enough to review AGAIN! You're a great friend and I appriciate all the support!! 

Shocked was not the right word to describe the look on Hermione's face at Harry's admission. Stunned, shaken, and even a little bit angry would be a more proper description. Harry thought that if her eyes got any wider, they would almost certainly pop out of her head.

"Your . . .daughters? They are your DAUGHTERS?"

"Yes, twins. They're five, they'll be six in the summer. In fact, their birthday is only a week before mine."

"Five . . .that means they were born . . . "

"The summer after I left."

"T-the summer after . . . THE SUMMER AFTER YOU LEFT?" Hermione finally exploded at this newest revelation. "You just gave me some sob story about how you left Ginny because you weren't ready for a family, yet with in a year after leaving her you were married and had children? How could you? You stupid, selfish, son of a bitch! How long after you left her, huh? How long before you were married and getting some other woman knocked up?"

"Hermione, please, it wasn't like that." Harry tried to interrupt her ranting. 

"It wasn't like that? Well, Harry, it seems that way to me. You're the one who said it, you said you weren't ready, but now I find out you have a family? Answer me Harry, how long after you left her?"

"Three months."

"Three months? That's IT? You were with Ginny for two years, and three months after you walked out on her you were married and had kids on the way?"

"No! It wasn't like that. I wasn't married at the time."

"Not married? Then how do you explain THEM?" Hermione demanded, gesturing toward the two little girls, who were still talking, but kept throwing glances in the direction of their father.

"The twins . . .they were an accident, the result of a fling."

"A . .. fling? You had a FLING? Harry . . . .I never would have expected that from you!"

"I know. But, I wasn't myself then. I was enjoying life for the first time, maybe a little too much. I'm not proud of who I was, or the things I did. It was only meant to be a brief thing, but after she got pregnant, I knew I couldn't just leave her or the baby. We were actually planning on being married."

"Oh, well isn't that just nice? The all noble Harry Potter, leaves his long time girlfriend, but is willing to marry his pregnant whore? Well congratulations to you!" Hermione snapped out in anger. She was beginning to wish that she had never found him. This wasn't the Harry she had known in school, the one that she had once loved like family.

"I know, I know, I made some crappy decisions, and I regret them. I don't regret my girls, however. All the mistakes I made, all the poor choices, they are the one thing I did right."

"Who is their mother?"

"Don't worry about it, Hermione. It's nobody that you know."

"Try me. You might be surprised."

"Trust me, you don't know her. She was a Muggle."

"A-a Muggle? You got a MUGGLE pregnant? HOW did you manage that?"

"After I left Ginny, I ended up in Muggle London, and it was wonderful. Nobody there knew who I was, nobody had ever heard of the famous Harry Potter. This scar meant nothing to them. I could feed them the same story that my family had, that I had gotten it in a car accident, and they believed me. I found myself going back, day after day, to the Muggle bars and clubs. That's how I got into all the trouble, I was drinking every weekend and taking different girls home with me all the time. I met the girls' mother at one of the bars. I took her home with me a couple of different times, and then a couple of months later she came back to find me, she told me she was pregnant. She moved in with me after that, and we started making plans to get married. But then, when she was five months along, she found out. I'm not entirely sure how it happened, she went into the storage closet for something and found my school trunk. Then she knew, she knew what a freak I was . . .that I had this abnormality. She totally freaked when she found out, asking if the babies . . .we knew there were two by then . . .she asked if they would be the same. When I told her yes, she lost it. Asked how I could go around getting people pregnant, contaminating the world like that. She didn't want the babies, told me that after she gave birth she wanted me to take the things . . .she actually called our babies THINGS . . .she wanted me to take them and leave, never contact her again. After the girls were born she signed off her parental rights and I took them and left. We've been on our own ever since."

Hermione looked at him, eyes shining with unshed tears. Even as mad as she had been at him, she still felt his pain. After all, this had been her best friend for seven years. She knew the way he had been raised, told that he was a freak. To know that somebody thought the same of his children . . .their own mother felt this way . . .it had to be killing him inside.

"Oh, Harry," She whispered, not trusting her voice. "I had no idea. You've been living in the Muggle world, then?"

"No . . . no, I couldn't stay away from the wizarding world, especially now that I have children. I wanted them to know, they deserved that much . . .to understand their heritage. I couldn't come back around here though, I knew you all would find me. As much as I love my girls, I didn't want you to find out about them, and about my past. So, I took them and moved to France. I've been working at a wizarding youth center there."

"And you've been raising them on your own?"

"Yes. Or trying too at least. I don't know how good of a job I've been doing."

"I'm sure you've been wonderful, Harry," Hermione reassured him and laid a hand on his arm. She looked over at the two young girls and studied them for a minute. "They're beautiful."

"Would you like to meet them?"

"Yes, please."

"Filles," Harry called across the store. "Venu ici, sil vous plait."

The two little girls ran across the store and stopped in front of their father, turning tiny angelic faces up to him.

"Oui, père?" The responded in small, delicate voices.

"Je veux que vous rencontriez un ami à moi. C'est Hermione. Pouvez vous dire bonjour?"

"Bonjour, Mademoiselle."

"En anglais, sil vous plait."

"Hello, miss." The two girls greeted Hermione.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you. You are both beautiful girls." Hermione returned their greeting, smiling brightly at the two girls. 

"Merci." The girls told Hermione.

"Do they not speak English, Harry?"

"Yes, they are quite fluent at it. However, sometimes they forget." Harry responded before turning back to the girls. "Que vous deux fonctionnent en arrière plus d'à où vous étiez, papa serez le long dans juste une minute." 

The girls wandered back through the store, and Harry watched them go, a look of pride and love on his face. He only turned his attention from them when his thoughts were interrupted by Hermione's voice.

"What are their names?"

"The little red head is Abigail Rae, the other one is Rachel Isabelle."

"They're beautiful, they really are."

"Thank you. Abigail reminds me of pictures I've seen of my mother. Rachel looks exactly like me, except she has her mother's blue eyes."

"Harry, not that I'm not glad to have you back but . . .what are you doing back in London?"

"We've moved back here. I want the girls to attend London Primary Wizarding Academy. They won't be starting for another year, but I wanted them to have time to get used to the language. We've only been here a week. We're staying in a room above The Leaky Cauldron, and the girls wanted to get out today, so I brought them down here."

"You've been staying above The Leaky Cauldron? Harry, you can't be living there with two little girls!" Hermione scolded him. She couldn't believe he would keep his children there.

"I know, but there is no where else to go, Hermione."

"Of course there is. You're going to come with me, back to The Burrow."

"No . . . No, I can't! They would never accept me back!"

"Oh, bull, Harry. You know that Molly would love to have you! Everyone would want to see you again, to know that you're okay. I've told you, everybody has been worried about you! You owe it to them to at least let them know that you're still alive!"

"Hermione, please. I can't go back there."

"Harry, you can and you will. Either you come with me, or I will go get them and hunt you back down!"

"Okay, okay, fine. I'll go, but only to let them know I'm still alive and okay. I'm not staying there." Harry insisted. He didn't think he could handle staying at The Burrow again. Not after so many years, and especially not when he knew how much they all must hate him.

"It will only be for a little while, until you find a place of your own."

"No!"

"Whatever. Just go get the girls' and your things, and meet me at the back entrance. We'll discuss this later."

"Fine," Harry grumbled. "Abigail, Rachel, obtenez celui que ce soit vous nous veuillent, et aient laissé partir."

The two girls ran over to him, clutching their finds in their hands. After he had paid, Harry took them back the their room and gathered all their belongings, wondering how it was that even after all these years Hermione could still talk him in to doing whatever she wanted.

"Girls. Come here, please?"

"Yes, father?

"I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is Hermione. Can you say hello?"

"Hello, miss."

"In English, please."

"Thank you."

"You two run back over to where you were, daddy will be along in just a minute."

"Get whatever it is you want, and let's go"


	3. Chapter Three

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Harry stood in front of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron, looking at Hermione skeptically. He had always known that, while exceptionally brilliant, his best friend never possessed much common sense and she was proving his point now.

"You want us to FLOO to The Burrow? Hermione, are you COMPLETELY mental? I can't just show up in the living room out of nowhere. Not after six years. Do you know how they would react? I would give them all a heart attack!"

"You're not going FIRST, Harry. I'll go ahead and warn them, you and the girls will follow about ten minutes later."

"I'm not so sure about this. I think it would be better if the girls and I just went back up to our room. I don't want to disrupt everyone's lives."

"Oh, don't give me that," Hermione scoffed. "You're just scared, admit it. You are going, and there's no getting out of it! I'm going through first; you give me about ten minutes and the come through. And don't try and get out of it! If you don't come through, I'll come back and find you. Don't think I won't!"

"Fine, fine, go on." Harry mumbled. He may as well face this; there was no getting out of it. He watched Hermione grab a handful of floo powder and walk into the gaping fireplace in front of them, calling out The Burrow. As the green flames engulfed her, his daughters clung to his legs, their eyes wide with fear. This was beginning to seem more and more like a bad idea. Even though he had explained the concept of using floo powder to the girls, they had never experienced it before. All too quickly ten minutes past, and he found himself ushering his girls into the fireplace. "Hold on tight to me, girls. Don't let go, okay?"

"Oui, papa." Tiny little twin voices responded to him, sounding small and frightened.

"It will be okay, mon peu ceux. But remember, the people we are going to visit don't speak French. You must use your English while we are there." Harry told his daughters. He made sure they were attached securely to him before throwing out the floo powder and calling out to go to The Burrow. As the flames surrounded them, his arms encircled his children and held them close to his body. As he felt the swirling around him slow, he stepped out into the Weasley living room, and right in to Molly Weasley's waiting arms.

"Oh . . .oh my. Harry darling, it IS you. When Hermione told me . . . I just didn't believe it until I could see you for myself. She said you were following behind her and now here you are. Oh, you've finally come home." Molly Weasley was a mixture of nervous laughter and tears. It was as if she didn't know how to respond to him being back. "Ron, Fred, George. Get down here! Hurry! Come down, quick."

Harry could hear the three men running down the stairs, making enough noise to be easily mistaken for a herd of hippogriffs. With in second the youngest three Weasley boys were hurrying in to the living room.

"Mum, what is it? What's happ- . . ." Ron came to an abrupt halt at the site of his childhood best friend standing in the middle of his home. His eyes narrowed in dangerous fury. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I invited him, Ron," Hermione answered before Harry could say anything. "I ran into him at Diagon Alley and brought him back with me."

"You had no right to do that," Ron growled at her. "He has no business being in this house."

"Ron, stop acting like a child. He almost didn't come; I had to talk him into it. You need to be more polite to your guests."

"He's not my guest. You should have left him where you found him."

"Ronald Weasley!" Molly scolded. "This is still my house, and it is up to me who is a guest in my home. I, for one am delighted to have Harry back."

"He doesn't belong here anymore, Mum," Ron shook his head. "He gave up that right six years ago."

"Hermione, I told you I shouldn't have come," Harry sighed in disappointment. "It was a bad idea. The girls and I will just go back to our room."

For the first time since Harry had arrived at the Weasley house, everyone noticed the two little girls clinging to his legs. Both children were frightened to begin with, and when they noticed all eyes on them, they clutched their father tighter and moved to hide themselves behind him.

"Who are they?" Ron snapped at the sight of the girls.

"These are my daughters, Abigail and Rachel."

"You have a hell of a lot of nerve. You disappear on my sister; don't bother to let anyone know you're alive. You virtually disappear off the face of the earth for SIX years, and then you come back, with a wife and kids. Kids that look like they were on the way before you ever left my sister."

"First of all don't assume that just because I have children, I also have a wife. I was never married; things didn't work between their mother and me. Second of all, how DARE you imply that I was cheating on Ginny? I would never do something like that, and you know it."

"Oh, I do, do I?" Ron asked as he inched closer to Harry. "I don't know anything about you. I thought I did, a long time ago, but you seem to have proven me wrong. The person I used to be friends with, and I thought I knew, would never have betrayed his friends the way you did."

"Ron, it wasn't like that. You haven't even given me a chance to explain."

"I don't want to hear any explanation you have come up with. I knew you long enough to know that you can come up with a million and one excuses, and can talk your way out of anything. But it's not going to work now, Harry. Not anymore, and certainly not with me." By the time Ron had backed Harry up against a wall and had grabbed a hold of the front of his shirt. "Do you know the hell my sister went through after you left? Do you have ANY idea what it's like to hold your sister while her heart is breaking? To listen to her cry herself to sleep NIGHT after NIGHT? For a MONTH! To see her get her hopes up every time there was a rumor that you had been seen? She fucking LOVED you! Then she woke up one morning and you were GONE! She didn't know where you were, nobody did. Everyone thought you were dead, but she never gave up hope, NEVER. For two years she would tell us that you would be home, you were coming back to her! Then one day, she finally accepted the fact that you were gone for good. I had to watch the light die in my baby sister's eyes! I haven't seen a smile reach her eyes in years! They've been dead and dull! I had to watch her heart break all over again! I will not let you come back into her life and hurt her again!"

"Ron . . .please . . . ."

"NO! I don't want to hear it. Now get out of my house," Ron yelled as he shoved Harry across the room, back towards the fireplace. "GET OUT!"

Harry stood in shock for a moment, staring at his former best friend, before nodding dejectedly. He took a hold of Abigail and Rachel and turned sad eyes toward Hermione.

"I'm sorry Hermione, I tried. You know where we are, and you're always welcome to come visit us."

He had just gotten to the edge of the fireplace, ready to floo himself and his daughters back to Diagon Alley when he was stopped dead in his tracks by a voice from the doorway.

"Mum, is everything alright? I thought I heard shouting, what's going-" Ginny Weasley stopped mid-sentence at the sight of her former love. Her eyes locked with Harry's and she stared at him in shock for a brief moment before collapsing to the floor in a dead faint.


	4. Chapter Four

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed!

Thank you to **psalatino, ProfessorZ,Aragorn4,**and** quietharrypotterfan** for adding me to your favorites!

Special thanks goes out to **Beeker** for being my unofficial beta-reader. I can always count on you to be honest with me and let me know where I can improve. Thanks for all the words of encouragement.

My little mudblood: If you are reading this, thank you for your help and words of encouragement as well! ♥ ya sis!

Harry stood in horror and watched as Ron, Fred, and George rushed to their sister's side. Of course he had known he would have to face Ginny eventually, but he hadn't planned on it being quite so soon, and with no warning to her. He could only imagine the shock it must have been to her system to walk into her living room and see him standing there. After all, he himself was filled with all kinds of emotion.

It had been six years since he had last seen Ginny, and in that time he had managed to push aside and all but forget what he had felt about her when he left. Regardless of what anyone believed, he had been in love with her; Ginny had been his entire world. Now seeing her again, seeing her so vulnerable and in distress, all of his old feeling came bubbling back up to the surface.

She had changed so much since the last time he had seen her. She had lost weight, not that there had been much there to lose. Her hair was much shorter than he remembered, and styled sophisticatedly around her face. When he had left she had been barely sixteen, and still trying to find her place in the world. Now, however, was gone the young girl he remembered, and in its place was a beautiful mature woman.

As Ron carried Ginny across the room to lay her on the couch, Harry instinctively moved toward her, wanting to see if she was alright. He had barely taken two steps, however, before both Fred and George were in front of him with their hands pressed firmly on his chest, preventing him from moving.

"You stay right there, Potter. You've done enough," Fred hissed at him.

"You need to just go away and leave our sister alone," George added in.

"Please, I don't want to hurt her. Just . . . Is she okay?" Harry asked as he tried to move toward her before once again being shoved across the room. This time he lost his balance and he fell to the floor.

"I SAID, stay away," Fred growled. "I don't want you anywhere near Ginny."

Harry sighed and carefully stood up. He had twisted his ankle when he stumbled, and there was now a dull ache throbbing through it. Both of his girls grabbed on to his hands and hid themselves behind his body, fear evident on their young faces.

"Papa, pourquoi ces hommes sont-ils fous à vous?" Abigail asked him in a tiny voice.

"Il n'est rien à s'inquiéter votre petite tête pour, papa prendra soin de lui."

"Ils m'effrayent, papa." Rachel whispered to him, as she gripped his hand tighter.

"Ne vous inquiétez pas, très. Ils ne vous blesseront pas."

"What are they babbling on about?" George snarled as he looked at the twins with an expression of obvious disgust and distaste written across his face. "Don't they speak English?"

"Yes, they do. Quite well in fact. However, French is their first language and they use it when they are frightened. Not that I blame them, the way you lot are acting."

"Then maybe you should take the little brats and get out of here, before someone gets hurt."

"You'll leave them alone," Harry growled, his eyes narrowing. "Your problems are with me, not with them. They've done nothing to you."

"Maybe not, but the mere sight of them repulses me."

"That's ENOUGH!" Mrs. Weasley finally interrupted. 

"But Mum . . ."

"No . . . no more. The two of you, get out of here, just get out of my sight," She barked at the twins. "You are acting like children, and I'm sick of it. Get out of here, now! Ron, you take the two little ones and get them something to eat. There's a pie in the kitchen, give them each a slice and also a glass of milk."

"ME? Why do I have to deal with the little things?"

"NOW, Ronald!"

"Fine, fine, whatever," Ron grumbled under his breath. He turned towards the twins and held his hands out to each of them. "Come on you two."

Abigail and Rachel both shied away from him and clung tighter to Harry. It was obvious that they were leery about going anywhere with the man who had so recently thrown their father across a room. Harry gave their hands a squeeze and smiled soothingly down at them.

"C'est ok, ne sont pas effrayés. Le papa aura raison ici si vous avez besoin de moi."

The two girls looked at him uncertainly before timidly following Ron into the kitchen. Harry watched them walk away, a small smile playing across his lips. Molly Weasley studied him intently, as she had been since he entered her home, and watched his interaction with the children. She smiled sadly as she watched him, knowing that he had finally found something in his life to make him happy. She only wished that it could have been with her Ginny.

"Harry, dear. Why don't you sit down for a moment? We'll deal with you after we take care of Ginny."

Harry nodded silently and sat down in a rocker in the corner of the room. Mrs. Weasley and Hermione were tending to Ginny, but he barely noticed them. He was too busy studying Ginny. It seemed like so long ago, lifetimes ago, that he had last seen her. He wanted so badly to reach out and run a hand along her arm or her face, anywhere really, just to see if she still felt the same as he remembered. No matter how many other women he had been with, he never was able to forget the feel of Ginny.

Hermione carefully poured some kind of liquid down Ginny's throat, and Harry watched as the younger girl began to come to, her eyes blinking into focus. 

"Ginny, how are you feeling?" Hermione asked softly, not wanted to get Ginny to worked up or excited.

"Hermione? Why am I on the couch? What happened?"

"You passed out, sweetie."

Ginny's eyes flew wide open and her hands flew up and across her stomach as she stared fearfully into Hermione's eyes. The two girls seemed to be having a silent conversation between the two of them for a couple of minutes before Ginny visibly relaxed.

"I kind of remember," Ginny acknowledged. "I hear shouting and I came inside. I. . . I thought I saw Harry. Pretty silly of me, huh?"

"No, Ginny it wasn't. You did see him."

"I-I did? He was here? Harry was here?" Ginny cried out.

"Yes, and he still is here. I guess seeing him was just a little too much for you."

"He's . . .here. Still? I want . . . I want to see him."

"I'm right here," Harry spoke up softly, worried about frightening her again. 

"Oh, Harry. Is it really you? You're real, not just a figment of my imagination?"

"No, it's really me," Harry smiled. He had been so certain that she would be angry at him, that she would scream and yell. In all honesty, he was expecting her to react like her brother's had, cursing him out and telling him to leave.

Ginny sat up slowly, her eyes never leaving him. It was almost as if she was afraid that if she blinked or looked away, he would be gone in an instant, once again disappearing into oblivion. She held out a hand to him and motioned him over to her. 

Harry stood up and slowly closed the distance between the two of them. This is what he had been dreaming of every night for six long years, being reunited with his Ginny. He kneeled down in front of her and just looked into her eyes, uncertainly.

"This can't be real. I've waited for this for too long. It's all a dream, I'm going to wake up and you'll be gone," Ginny whispered, sounding as if she was trying to convincer herself.

"No, I'm really here, and I'm not going anywhere, I promise," Harry reassured her as he lifted a hand to brush her hair back from her face.

Ginny smiled at the gesture, memories of his touch flooding her mind. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, allowing herself to get lost in the memories. It was just like being in a dream. Then reality caught up with her, and reminded her of everything that had happened in the past six years, letting her know that these touches were real.

Her eyes fluttered open and she raised her hand. Then, she slapped Harry hard across his face.

"Daddy, why are those men mad at you?"

"It's nothing to worry your little head about; Daddy will take care of it."

"They're scaring me, daddy."

"Don't worry, precious. They won't hurt you." 

"It's okay, don't be scared. Daddy will be right here if you need me."


	5. Chapter Five

**DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE** I am having some problems with my computer, when I'm online it keeps restarting the computer. SO, I don't know when I'll be able to update again. I'm going to call about having my computer fixed, but I don't know how long that will take. Sorry for the inconvenience 

Harry jerked backwards and his hand flew to the side of his face in shock. He had expected Ginny to be upset, yes, but he had never anticipated her slapping him. Never in any of the time they were together had Ginny resorted to physical violence, it just wasn't in her nature.

"You complete and utter bastard!" Ginny shrieked as she took another swing at him. "Where the HELL have you been? Just disappearing like that . . .sneaking away in the night . . .like a bloody COWARD!"

As Ginny continued to assault him, Harry sat there dumbfounded. He knew he should try to defend himself, to protect his body from the blows, but he couldn't move. Somehow he felt as if he owed this to her, after all that he had done, she deserved the chance to take out her frustration on him.

After several minutes of hitting him, Ginny finally seemed to tire and flopped back against the back of the couch. When he finally felt that it was safe, Harry opened his mouth to speak.

"Ginny . . ." He began tentatively. She still looked plenty upset and he didn't want to spark a fresh bout of physical attack.

"Don't . . . whatever you're going to say, just don't. I don't want to hear pathetic excuses or half-assed apologies. There is nothing you can say, NOTHING, that can make up for the past six years, Harry."

"I know, Ginny. I know it doesn't mean anything to you, but I AM sorry, please believe me."

"Believe you? How can I believe anything you say? Do you know what it was like for me to wake up one morning and you were just GONE? You didn't leave a note, no clue as to where you were going. I thought you had been taken, that you were in trouble."

"I know, I know. I never should have done it that way. Ginny please, just talk to me, hear me out. I'd like for us to be friends again, if that's possible. After we've talked if you never want to speak to me again, I'll understand and I'll stay out of your life. Just give me a change first though, okay?"

Ginny looked up at him silently and studied his face, stared in to his eyes. He didn't know what she was looking for, but he hoped she found it there. Too much of the past six years of his life had been spent thinking about this woman, and he didn't want to lose her again with out even a chance. Finally her gaze drifted back down to her hands and she nodded slowly. A smile slowly slid across Harry's face and he moved to sit next to her on the couch.

"Harry," Mrs. Weasley spoke softly, but in the silent room it startled the other occupants anyway. "You two stay in here and talk. Ron, Hermione, and I will take care of . . .other things."

Harry nodded his appriciation to Mrs. Weasley, feeling a bit ashamed of himself. In the past few moments, he had all but forgotten about his children. Shaking off his feelings of guilt, he turned back to Ginny's expectant face, and tried to decide where to start.

"Say what you need to, Harry," Ginny urged him softly. "I can't promise I'll forgive you, though."

"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. I never meant to hurt you, I honestly didn't. It never occurred to me how much it would affect you. I guess one thing I never learned was to think before I acted. When I left, I had convinced myself that I was doing what was best for you."

"What was best for me? How could you EVER have thought that leaving me was would be best for me?"

"Because, Ginny, I was everything that was wrong for you. You had it all planned out in your mind, the kind of life we would have, the kind of husband I would be. It just wasn't me, Ginny. I didn't want to be anyone's husband, not then at least. If I had stayed, if we had gotten married, it would have been the biggest mistake either of us ever made. We would have been miserable, YOU would have been miserable. I didn't want to do that to us."

"But we could have worked past it, Harry. We could have gotten through all of that together. I would have listened, we could have postponed the wedding until you were ready. Why didn't you just SAY something?"

"I tried too. I tried more times that I can remember. You just seemed to not want to hear me. You were so caught up in wedding plans, and that was all you thought of, you refused to listen to anything else."

"Don't you dare, Harry Potter! Don't you even try to turn around and blame this on me." Ginny hissed at him.

"I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to make you understand why I did it."

"But I don't understand! Harry I love -I loved you. I would have done anything to make it work. You didn't give me that chance, though. You just took off, and left me to think the worst."

"I know it was wrong of me, but I was so scared. I was only 17, I didn't know how to deal with everything."

"Okay, you were young and stupid. But why didn't you come back? Six years was a long time to stay gone, Harry. Why didn't you ever come back?"

Harry took a deep breath and tried to formulate his response. This was the part of the conversation that he knew had been coming, but that he had been dreading.

"Ginny, there was a lot going on in my life. I wasn't the same person as when I left, I'm still not the same person and never will be. There have been to many changes in my life."

"That's still no reason for you not to come back, Harry. What ever it was, we could have worked through it, just to know that you were alive."

"I couldn't come back, though, I was ashamed."

"Ashamed of what, Harry?"

"Of what I had become, of things I had done. There were things about me that I never wanted anybody to find out about."

"Like what? There is nothing so bad that you couldn't have come home." Ginny insisted. She just couldn't understand why Harry had chosen to stay away for so long. Didn't he know that she could have forgiven him anything?

"When I left, I did a lot of things out of character for me. I started drinking, a lot. I'd go out to the bars and find different women, then take them back to my apartment with me. Every other night I was taking a girl home with me, a different one. At the lowest point, sometimes I'd have more than one in a single night. I'd finish with one and then go find another."

Ginny stared at him wide-eyed and horrified before shifting her gaze down to where her hands were resting in her lap. That simple response had hurt her more than she had hurt when he left her. The two of them had never had any kind of sexual relationship, but yet he had gone whoring around after he left her. Apparently there was something wrong with her, that he found less than desirable.

"Oh," Ginny whispered softly, unsure of how to respond to his confession. "Are . . .are you still . . . .?"

"No. I haven't been that way in five years. I had some . . .things happen, that forced me to change, and to grow up."

"Things?"

"When I was with the girls, I wasn't always . . .careful. I was usually drunk and, more often than not, I never used any kind of protection."

"Oh, Harry. You didn't . . . .you didn't get sick or anything, did you?" Mad as she was at him, there was still a tremor of fear in her voice. No matter what she thought of him, she didn't want anything bad to happen to him, she never had.

"No, nothing like that. But . . . Ginny . . . .I'm a father. I have two little girls."


	6. Chapter Six

****

A.N.: Thank you to all who have been reading and taking time to review. I've noticed I got some new readers. Some of you have commented on putting the English translations of the French directly after the French. I didn't do this because to me it looked too cluttered. This shouldn't be a problem anymore though, everything will probably be in English from here on out, I lost the bookmark to the page I was using as a translator. If I find it again there MAY be SOME French in an upcoming chapter that I have planned, but I'm not sure of anything at the moment. Glad to know you are all enjoying the story.

** Also, someone pointed out to me that I had my settings so annonymous reviewers could not review. I was unaware of this, thank you for pointing it out to me, it has been fixed!**

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Ginny's eyes widened in pure shock and she looked at him, speechless. This was not what she had been expecting. In fact in all of her wildest dreams, the LAST thing she had ever imagined was for Harry to come home, only to tell her that he had a family. 

Harry just sat and watched as disbelief, disappointment, and even a little bit of anger flashed across Ginny's face. This was what he had feared, had been so afraid of, ever since he had run into Hermione at Diagon Alley. No matter what anyone else thought of him, no matter how anyone else had reacted, this was what mattered the most. The only thing he cared about was how Ginny was going to react to his news. Her reaction was what would determine whether or not he would stay around, to try and get some part of his old life back. 

If she was okay with things, then he would stay and work his hardest to make his old friends trust him again. Maybe things could never go back to the way they had once been, and he didn't expect them to, but maybe . . .just maybe he could come close. He ached to have the family structure around him again, the system of support he had come to depend on in his youth. It was something he desperately wanted back, for himself and for his girls.

However, if Ginny couldn't accept his children then he would leave again. Painful as it had been he had managed to live the past six years without his "family" and he would be able to do it again. As much as he wanted them back he would not do anything to make things more difficult on Ginny, nor would he expose his girls to the pain of being unwanted.

Seconds were ticking by and turning into minutes as the pair sat just looking at one another. Harry was beginning to become uncomfortable under Ginny's gaze and was starting to consider the possibility of just getting the girls and going when finally Ginny regained control of her voice.

"I-I'm sorry, I think I misheard you," She croaked out in disbelief. "Could you please repeat that?"

"I have kids, Gin. I'm the _very_ proud father of two beautiful little girls."

"I see. A-and you're married?"

"No."

"No?"

"Things didn't work out between us," Harry told her, not wanting to go into the long explanation.

"Okay." Ginny breathed, trying to rationalize one thing at a time, in small details. "And how often do you see them?"

"All the time. Their mother didn't want them, I have sole custody."

"YOU have them? And where are they now? "

"They're out in the kitchen. Your mum, Ron, and Hermione are watching them. They are what your mum was talking about when she said she'd take care of things for me."

"They're here? You've brought them to my house?"

"There really wasn't much else of a choice, Ginny. Hermione insisted that I come here. I had nowhere else to take them, and they aren't old enough to stay by themselves."

"How old are they?"

"Five."

"Both of them?"

"Yes, they're twins."

Ginny nodded and looked down, alternately playing with a ring on one of her hands and the necklace she wore around her neck. It was greatly frightening Harry how calmly she was taking all of this. After two years of a relationship he had learned, the hard way, that Ginny was a spitfire and had the famed red head temper. Never had he seen her so placid when faced with something that upset her, particularly when he was the one she was upset with. In the time span of two years Harry had been screamed at, hexed, and had a countless number of thing thrown at his head.

Again it seemed like an eternity until the silence was broken. Eventually Ginny looked back up at him with an unreadable expression in her eyes.

"How long?"

"Huh?" Harry asked as his face twisted in confusion. "How long, what?"

"How long until you get bored with them and you decide to leave them?"

"Ginny, WHAT are you talking about?"

"Your children. We all know that you SUCK at commitment," Ginny snapped at him. "So how long until it gets to be too much and you decide you don't want them anymore, huh?"

"I would never do something like that to my girls, I love them too much. They're my whole world, Gin. I could never just **_leave_** them!" Harry retorted in shock, not believing that she could actually think such a thing about him.

"Yeah right," She jeered. "You used to say the same thing about me. Then you decided that I wasn't enough for you, so you just up and left me."

"Gin, it wasn't like that . . ."

"Like hell it wasn't. The entire time we were together you wouldn't even touch me, gave me some bullshit line about wanting to wait until after the wedding to make it 'more special' and now I find out you've screwed half of London. Then you have the nerve to tell me it wasn't because I wasn't enough for you? Just tell me something Harry, are you going to have the decency to leave your girls with somebody or are you just going to take off in the night, letting them discover you gone in the morning?"

"DAMN IT, GINNY!" Harry yelled at he jumped to his feet. "I am NOT going to leave my daughters. I made a mistake, yes, but that was SIX years ago! I have changed. Those girls are MINE, my flesh and blood. There is nothing that could make me leave them."

"Whatever." Ginny snapped as she stood up, clearly not believing him. "I can't deal with this right now."

She brushed past him swiftly, not even giving him a second glance as she left the room. Harry watched her as she walked out and then fell back down to the couch and buried his face in his hands as he heard her walk upstairs. That wasn't exactly how he had hoped things would go, but at least now he had his answer now as to what he needed to do. 

"I take it things didn't go well?"

Harry started at the sound of a voice coming from the doorway. He looked up and saw Mrs. Weasley standing there, watching him sadly.

"No," He sighed. "She was really calm at first, and then she started implying that I would someday leave Abigail and Rachel, the way I had left her. That upset me and I exploded at her, that's when she left."

"I'm sure she didn't mean it though, darling. She knows you well enough to know that you wouldn't desert your blood."

"No, I think she honestly believes that I would just up and abandon them." Harry argued sadly. "At any rate, I know that my stay here has ended. Where are the girls? We need to be going."

"Nonsense, Harry." Molly Weasley protested as she sat on the couch and embraced him. "We've only just got you back, I can't let you leave now."

"No, me being here will only upset Ginny, and I don't want that."

"On the contrary, I think having you here will do her some good. She just hasn't been the same since you left, Harry. She lost her happiness."

"And I'm sorry about that, I truly am," He lamented. "But it's too late to change now. I can't stay, Mrs. Weasley, I just can't. She hates me, and she is going to hate my girls. I can't do that to them."

"She doesn't hate you or the girls, Harry. Ginny just isn't herself lately, her emotions are going out of control." Mrs. Weasley explained to him.

"Oh?"

"Yes. You see . . . Ginny is pregnant."

"Sh-she's what?"

"Pregnant, dear. She only told us last week, she's not very far along . . .only about a month or two I'd say. I probably shouldn't have said anything, but you needed to know. You see, she's not thinking like herself, she probably isn't completely aware of what she's saying."

"I-I see," Harry stuttered. This was a major revelation to him and he wasn't completely sure as to how he was supposed to react. "That's all the more reason for me to leave, though. She's moved on with her life, I don't want to cause any awkwardness between her and her husband."

"There is no husband."

"Her boyfriend, then. Having your ex and your current both around would be odd for her, and cause her undue stress. I'm sure the baby's father wouldn't appreciate that. I know that when Alyssa was pregnant, I was very protective of her, I didn't want anything happening to the babies."

"That's the thing though, Harry. There is no boyfriend, Ginny hasn't seen anyone since you. She refused to name the father, she keeps saying there isn't one."

"Um, oh. But still, I really can't stay. Tomorrow I have a meeting about my placement for work."

"Placement?" Mrs. Weasley asked, curiosity in her voice.

"Yes, I'm going to be working at a teen center, the same as I have been. There are two around here, one in London . . .a few blocks from Knockturn Alley. The other is in Hogsmeade across from the Hogs Head. Tomorrow I'm to find out which I'll be working at."

"Why can't you stay here until your meeting?"

"We're meeting at The Leaky Cauldron. It's just easier for me to already be there."

"But . . .if you go back tonight who will watch the girls while you're in your meeting? If you stay here I'd be more than happy to watch them."

"They'll go with me," Harry explained patiently. He truly didn't want to stay at the Burrow and he was trying to get out of doing so as politely as possible. 

Molly sighed in resignation as she realized that she wasn't going to win the battle.

"Harry, if I let you leave . . .you will come back?"

"Only if you want." Harry replied hesitantly.

"Of course I do. And so do my children, regardless of what they say."

Harry nodded, though he didn't totally believe her, and walked into the kitchen.

"Abigail, Rachel, come. It's time to leave."

The two girls jumped up from where they had been sitting at the table and ran to their father, attaching themselves to his legs. Harry smiled and squeezed each of them, happy to have his girls back with him. They hadn't been separated long, but with the tension in the house it had seemed like a lifetime.

"You're . . .leaving?" Hermione asked in shock. "But I thought you were going to stay."

"Not right now, Hermione. It would be too much all at once. I'll be back though, I promise, and if you want to find me I'll be above The Leaky Cauldron, we're in room 158."

"O-okay. But, if you up and disappear . . . . ."

"I won't," Harry reassured her as he enveloped her in a hug. "I have at least one of my friends back, I don't want to lose you."

"You're not going to lose me," Hermione whispered as she hugged him back. "I'll come see you soon?"

"That would be fine."

Harry let go of his grasp on her and stepped back, sending a quick, courteous nod in Ron's direction. He then held on to the girls and took them back into the living room and stepped into the fireplace. He gave one last glance at the people in the room before the girls and he disappeared into the green flames.


	7. Chapter Seven

****

A.N.: Sorry this took so long to get out, I was waiting to hear from my beta. Thank you to all who have been reading and taking time to review. Too all of my new readers, welcome. I'm glad you are all enjoying this story. As always a special thank you to Beeker for being my unofficial beta reader! You're a doll!

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Harry woke up the next morning to the sound of childish giggling. He grabbed his glasses from the side of his bed and looked around the room to find the source of the sounds. The two girls were sitting on the floor at the base of the bed they slept in, throwing an array of things into a tiny plastic cauldron that was setting on the floor between them.

"Girls, what are you doing?" Harry asked his daughters, almost afraid to hear the answer. 

"We's making a potion, papa." Rachel squealed happily.

"A potion?"

"Uh-huh."

"And what kind of potion, may I ask, are you making?"

"One to drink," Abigail answered, her voice indicating that it was the most obvious thing in the world and her father was stupid for not knowing the answer.

Harry rolled his eyes at his daughter's tone of voice, thinking she sounded too much like a younger version of himself for his own liking. Sitting up, he held out his hand for the piece of paper that they kept consulting.

"Give me the directions, girls."

Both of them pouted as Rachel handed their father the piece of paper. Harry scanned over it a minute and realized that they were making a simple kool-aid type drink. It was just one of the many things they could make with the ingredients and recipe booklet that had come with their toy potion kit. It had been a gift to them, each receiving their own kit, designed to teach young witches and wizards the proper way to follow directions and combine ingredients. It was supposed to give them a head start before they began their formal education. The ingredients were mostly simple kitchen ingredients or harmless herbs and spices, there was no way possible of making anything dangerous, but Harry hated the kit all the same. Luckily the girls had chosen to make something simple this morning, there was more than one recipe that's result was an absolute mess.

"And just why were you making a 'potion' this early in the morning?" Harry asked the two.

"Because it's fun, papa!" Rachel exclaimed, obviously surprised that her father would have to even ask such a question. Abigail was nodding enthusiastically in agreement.

Harry groaned in dismay, leave it to his daughters to actually ENJOY potion making. When they were old enough to go to Hogwarts Professor Snape was going to either love this, or not know what to do. He'd have not one but two Potters that not only LIKED Potions, but would probably even be good at it. Harry had to groan again at the mere thought of his children actually looking forward to Snape's class. This was assuming the older man was even at Hogwarts anymore. Harry had no idea if his old professor was even still alive, let alone teaching. 

Quickly Harry brought his wandering mind back to the present. He still had six years before he had to worry about the girls being at Hogwarts. Right now he had other things to deal with.

"Abigail, Rachel, you both know you aren't allowed to be playing with this with out me."

"We wasn't, papa," Rachel defended herself and her sister. "You was right there."

"I was sleeping, that doesn't count. You're not allowed to play potions with out my supervision because you tend to make a miss, and you know it. Not to mention that this was in my bag, which means you got into my things with out asking me and you know you're not allowed to do that either."

"We sorry, papa," The girls chorused in unison, hanging their heads because they knew they were in trouble. 

"You should be, but being sorry isn't going to keep you from being punished. No potions kit for two weeks, and no flying until the weekend, that means three days."

"But papa . . . "

"No. You broke the rules and you know better. Now get in the bathroom so I can give you a bath, we've got to get ready to go. Papa has an important meeting this morning."

Both girls grumbled unhappily at their fate, but obeyed and followed their father into the bathroom. After he had given them their bath and got them dressed, he sent them back into the bedroom while he showered, and gave them the strict instructions that they better behave or their punishment would be increased.

When he came out twenty minutes later the girls were laying across their bed, coloring in a muggle coloring book that he had bought them. Rachel looked up as her father entered the room and smiled brightly at him. Harry knew that the girls were up to something, they only ever looked that innocent when they wanted something from him.

"Whatever it is that you want . . .the answer is no," Harry told the girls, answering them before they even had the chance to ask the question.

"Papa, please? We want to stay here while you go downstairs."

"After what the two of you were doing this morning? You broke two rules and now you want me to allow you to stay here by yourselves? Absolutely not! Besides, you're too young."

"We big girls, papa!" Rachel whined in protest.

"And we be good, papa. We not gonna do anything bad. We promise," Abigail chimed in, arguing their case.

"I said no and I meant it. Now come on before I'm late. You can take the crayons and books with you."

The girls whined momentarily as they got up from the bed, but stopped at the stern look they were receiving from their father. They both knew better than to argue with him when he was giving them that look.

When they got downstairs Harry sat the girls down at a table and got them started on their coloring then looked around to see if he could find who he was supposed to be meeting with. Nobody had told him who he was supposed to be meeting, and he was more than a little surprised to see one of his former schoolmates at a table across the room waving him over. With one last warning to the girls to behave, he walked over to the young woman who was waving at him enthusiastically.

"Cho? What are you doing here?" He asked in surprise, not quite sure if this was who he was to be meeting, or if it was just a coincidence. Never in a million years had he expected to run into his old school crush.

"I work for the teen mission, I was sent to discuss your placement with you."

"You? I had no idea you were involved with the teen centers. I've never seen you at any of the conferences."

"I've never been to any of them. I've been involved with the centers around here for about a year and a half, but mostly just as a chaperone," Cho explained as she motioned for him to sit with her. "I just got promoted to personnel about three months ago. Now I'm in charge of the hiring for the two local centers."

"Oh. Um, congratulations," Harry told her as he sat down across from her, feeling a little uncomfortable. After the two of them had briefly tried dating during his third year, things had always been awkward between them.

"Thank you," She replied cheerfully, a joyful smiling stretching across her face, before looking down at a file folder she had open in front of her. "Now, let's get down to business, I'm sure you'd rather spend the day with your girls than be tied up inside."

"Y-yeah. They don't like being cooped up, and neither do I."

"That's understandable. Now, I see you come very highly recommended. Your file says that you began as a counselor. Did you enjoy that position?"

"Yes, very much so. A lot of the kids I worked with came from broken or unhappy family backgrounds, and I can understand where they are coming from. I was able to relate to them and help them talk about their problems."

"I also see that you were involved in both the back-to-school program, the tutoring program, and the rehab programs. It seems that you were very successful at those and that your clients had a good success rate and post-program success rate. How did you find yourself to be in those positions?"

"I think my favorite was the back-to-school and tutoring programs, being able to see the kids turn their lives around and make something of themselves. I just got an owl right before I left from one of the kids I helped. She had just gotten an internship at a wizarding school over in America. She said she credits me for helping her get through school, that if it weren't for me she never would have finished. It's a good feeling to know you've helped someone that much."

"I see. Your former supervisor noted in here that you seem to have a certain rapport with your clients, that you put them at ease and really tend to take them under your wing. He said that you take a real personal interest in their lives."

"I just want to see them all succeed and I'm willing to do anything I can to help make that happen. I've given money to some, gotten jobs for others. I've even given more than one of them a place to stay when they needed it."

"And it didn't worry you having kids off the street staying in the same house as your little girls?"

"Cho, somebody needs to give these kids a change. You have to trust them and show that you trust them, otherwise they will never trust YOU. I never had any of them into my home that hadn't been coming to the center for at least six months, that gave me time to get to know them and know what they were like. It never worried me to have them near my babies, the girls often accompanied me to work and the teens loved them, treated them like younger sisters . . .or even children of their own. I've seen some of the clients stand up for and protect my girls. I knew I never had to worry about them."

Cho nodded her head and made a comment on a sheet of paper before closing the file folder and looking up at Harry.

"Well, Harry, I think I've heard enough. You seem to really care about the clients, and honestly want the best for them. You're willing to go to any lengths to make sure they all get a fair shot in life. Our centers around here definitely need somebody like you to work at them. Most of our employees are there to make a buck. They put in their time and when the day is over, it's over. You're obviously not like that. Off the top of my head I can think of several cases at either one of our centers that could benefit from having someone like you in their life. Our center in Hogsmeade is looking for a new director. You have the experience, the qualifications, and the heart for the position, it's yours if you like."

"D-director? Me? Seriously? Th-that would be great. But will I still have the personal interaction with the kids?"

"You'll be director, Harry. The amount of your involvement is up to you."

"I'll take it then. I will have free reign over decisions and changes I might wish to make at the center?"

"Of course, it's yours to run as you please."

"When do I start?"

"Let's see, today is Tuesday . . .why don't we wait until next Monday? That gives you about a week to prepare, and then a full week once you're in charge."

"Sounds good to me."

"Great, that's my center so I'll be able to get you into the swing of things," Cho said brightly. "The only thing left to discuss is your children."

"What about them?"

"The district supervisor here won't allow you to bring them to work with you, especially if you're a center director."

"What am I supposed to do with them then?"

"There's a great day care near the post office. Several of the teachers from Hogwarts leave their children there, as well as many of our center employees and other Hogsmeade workers. You can leave your girls there."

"Do I have a choice?"

"No, not really."

"Then I guess I'll leave them there then. However, my children come first. If anything about this job keeps me from them too much, I'll have to resign."

"Of course," Cho conceded as she stood up. "Now, take your family out and enjoy the rest of the day."

Harry nodded and stood, shaking her hand before returning to where Abigail and Rachel were still sitting at a corner table, coloring. Rachel looked up at him and smiled when he walked over to them.

"You done, papa?"

"Yep, all done. Papa is going to be the director of his own center. But, papa's boss doesn't allow me to take you with me, you'll have to go to a day care while I'm at work."

"No papa! Please? We be good girls, we not get in trouble no more."

"I have to, doll baby."

"Please don't send us away. Please, papa!"

Rachel was beginning to get tears in her eyes, and Harry could see the fear of him leaving her gleaming in her young eyes. He picked her up and cuddled her close to his chest, rubbing her back lightly.

"Sh, don't cry my precious. Let's not think about this now, we'll talk about it later. How would the two of you like to go into the alley today, and maybe we'll even get some ice cream?"

Abigail nodded her head eagerly, excited at the chance to shop and to get a special treat. Rachel on the other hand just sniffed and buried her face into her father's neck, just barely moving her head in an agreeing nod. 

Harry sighed, wishing he had a different choice. He tried not to play favorites with his girls, but there was no denying that Rachel had a special relationship with her father. She had almost died when she was a baby and continued having health problems on and off through out her young life. Harry had spent many nights in a hospital room holding the little girl while Abigail stayed at home with sitters. During that time the two of them had formed a deep bond, making the two of them close. 

As a result of her constant illness, Harry had become very protective of Rachel and very rarely left her anywhere with out him. It was no wonder she was reacting so badly to the prospect of being left at day care. Unfortunately Harry knew he had nobody to blame for the problem but himself.

Sighing again, Harry shifted the trembling and crying child so she was propped up on one side and he held his free hand out to Abigail, who didn't look any happier about the situation than her sister. The only difference was that Abigail was the tough one of the two girls, and refused to cry.

As Harry led the two girls out the back entrance of the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley, he prayed for the strength and wisdom to be able to make the right decision for both himself and his children.


End file.
